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New York Yankees Lend A Hand In Hokie Healing

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriquez signs autographs in the dugout during an exhibition game with Virginia Tech. (Richmond Times-Dispatch Photo/Dean Hoffmeyer)

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriquez signs autographs in the dugout during an exhibition game with Virginia Tech. (Richmond Times-Dispatch Photo/Dean Hoffmeyer)

March 19, 2008

By Darryl Slater

The first thing Alex Rodriguez said to them was, "Anybody interested in winning some bats?"

He carried two of them — long, black and shiny — across the field, and now here he was, standing on the top step of Virginia Tech's dugout, a mythic man to Tech's players, appearing before them simply to shoot the bull during the middle of a game.

He asked them who they played next. He commented on the wind at English Field. He gave his bats, batting gloves and wristbands to players who correctly answered trivia questions about him. He wondered if they had any questions for him.

Of course they did. Who's the toughest pitcher you've ever faced? Pedro Martinez in his prime, he said. Do your friends call you A-Rod or Alex? Mostly Alex, he said.

"It was like you were talking to your buddy from high school," Tech pitcher Andrew Wells said.

Tech's exhibition game yesterday against the New York Yankees — a gesture the Yankees of fered after April's shootings on campus left 32 students and faculty dead — was as much a departure from reality for the Yankees as it was for the Hokies.

For a day, the world's most famous baseball team could just play, a break from the businesslike approach and palatial stadiums that make the Yankees seem untouchable to the average schmo.

Jason Giambi left the dugout to sign autographs in the seventh and final inning. He said later he wished he could have arrived Monday to sample Blacksburg's night life. Johnny Damon, who never attended college, told Tech's players he'd love to come back for a football game. And Rodriguez, one of the most scrutinized and overanalyzed players on the planet, spent the fourth and fifth innings holding court in Tech's dugout.

"That's why I wanted to get up close and sit down with them, to make them feel like they're worthy to hang out with us," he said.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees won the game 11-0, a score none of Tech's players will remember nearly as much as yesterday's other moments: Wells getting Giambi to hit into a double play to end the first inning, bringing 5,000 fans to their feet and the Hokies out of the dugout to mob Wells; Anthony Sosnoskie's and Jose Cueto's line-drive singles for Tech's only hits; Rob Waskiewicz retiring Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano and Shelley Duncan for a 1-2-3 third inning — the first pitches of his college career, delayed for two seasons by elbow and shoulder surgeries.

Amid a day that surely felt like one euphoric blur, Wells stopped to notice how excited the Yankees looked. There was Derek Jeter, grinning in the on-deck circle before the first pitch. There was Rodriguez, chatting during batting practice with Tech first baseman Sean O'Brien, who offered Rodriguez an aluminum bat to swing, an offer that made Rodriguez chuckle and decline, fearful he'd injure his batting-practice pitcher.

"They were doing what they loved today, and you could tell they really enjoyed it," said Wells, proudly wearing a black wristband with "A-ROD" scrawled on it.

None of the Yankees tried to back out of the trip, Damon said, though it was sandwiched between two spring-training games. The team's regular lineup batted for the first three innings before yielding to reserves. "I know every one of the players felt moved and glad we were a part of it," Giambi said.

The moment Jeter will remember most came several hours before the game, when the Yankees visited the 32 memorial stones on Tech's Drillfield. A young woman approached him and asked if he'd take a picture with her next to her fiancée's stone. He was a big Yankees fan, she said. Sure, he said, but only if you smile.

She did.

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 dslater@timesdispatch.com